Paula Knoss lives in the Tampa Bay area. She's a proud military mom, but she now shares a painful connection with so many others.

She's now a Gold Star parent.

Her son, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, was one of the 13 service members who lost their lives last week in the suicide bombing at the Kabul Airport in Afghanistan.

“We said 'what are the chances? There’s 6,000 troops there.' Well it must have been pretty high because one out of 6,000 — it was Ryan,” Knauss told Spectrum Bay News 9.

She shared her pain during a virtual interview from the town in Tennessee where Ryan grew up.

Now, she's planning his funeral.

“I really struggled in disbelief that someone at 23, who had spent his entire life preparing to be in the armed forces, would lose his life at such a young age,” she said.

Knauss says her son was a loving husband, a best friend to his older brother, Tyler, and devoted everything he was to the military.

He enlisted right after high school graduation.

“So, Ryan on that day was doing exactly what he had chosen to do all his life, and that’s defend our country and the freedom that we have,” Knauss said.

Even though Ryan sacrificed his life doing what he loved, how and why it happened isn’t something Paula can wrap her mind around.

Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss was manning the gate that day, screening thousands of people who were scrambling to catch a flight out of harm's way.

“The rest of them dug in to try and protect the one area they placed them all in. They were sitting ducks. How do I feel? I feel grief. I feel anger. I am angry for the waste of life,” she said.

Paula Knauss is a grieving mother who wants accountablity for what happened to her son and 12 others amid the chaotic withdrawal. 

“I feel utter grief that I lost my son and I feel anger as an American. True anger,” she said.